Chairman Kim's Dissolving Kingdom

[liberalpragmatist]

This is very tentative of course. And the tone of the article seems somewhat snide and Conservative for what it's worth - a subtle dig at Kerry through guilt by association ("Kim gambled on a Kerry win but now has to face Bush"). It also quotes extensively from Christian missionaries which help many people escape - missionairies can tend to exagerrate and may not have a complete grasp of the politics.

But it's worth a read and hopefully it's correct.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1462207_1,00.html

In interviews for this article over many months, western policymakers, Chinese experts, North Korean exiles and human rights activists built up a picture of a tightly knit clan leadership in Pyongyang that is on the verge of collapse.

Some of those interviewed believe the “Dear Leader”, Kim Jong-il, has already lost his personal authority to a clique of generals and party cadres. Without any public announcement, governments from Tokyo to Washington are preparing for a change of regime.

The death of Kim’s favourite mistress last summer, a security clampdown on foreign aid workers and a reported assassination attempt in Austria last November against the leader’s eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, have all heightened the sense of disintegration.

<snip>

According to exiles, North Korean agents in Beijing and Ulan Bator are frantically selling assets to raise cash — an important sign, says one activist, because “the secret police can always smell the crisis coming before anybody else”.

***

This might mean nothing. But if true, good news nevertheless.

[Maple]

1. There was a story

awhile back about a wholesale purge of his family for plotting against him, and a warning that things were about to implode there.

I wondered at the time if the purge killed the implosion. Maybe not.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Has Kim been seen since the explosion?

I haven't seen any public appearances of him. A most bizarre society that needs to get a regime change real bad.